Lack of PM training ‘offensive’, says principal

An award-winning agency believes each employee should be completing a minimum of 40 hours of training every year.

LJ Hooker Cessnock and Kurri Kurri was recently named Real Estate Agency of the Year at the Australian Small Business Champion Awards.

Principal Bryce Gibson told Residential Property Manager that what sets the agency’s PM team apart is the high level of training that is compulsory for its staff.

“I found it a bit offensive when some agencies put in someone straight out of school or straight out of another job and who have had no real estate experience, straight into a job where they are a PM,” Mr Gibson said.

“That is offensive to other property managers and it is also offensive to the landlord.”

Mr Gibson said landlords should not be giving the keys to their greatest asset to someone who is under-trained.

“LJ Hooker has a benchmark that every person – be they a salesperson, a receptionist or a PM– does 20 hours a year,” he said.

“I would really like to see 40 hours a year, I want to double it – 40 hours is a working week, give or take, every 12 months.”

Mr Gibson said this training benchmark is not unrealistic if PMs want to truly grow professionally and personally.

He also said his firm has worked hard to bring sales and rentals together since it was bought eight years ago and now 14 per cent of all managements are being converted into a sale, compared to a longer-term average of about 10 per cent.

“Some of it we lose because obviously it gets sold to an owner-occupier, or the tenant purchases the property. But 80 per cent of the time we are seeing another investor buy the property and continuing that winning cycle.

“We continue to manage the property and maintain an income, but in the meantime we have been able to transact from one landlord to the next and continue that relationship.”